CALGARY — The Calgary Stampeders repeated over and over again that there was nothing to worry about.

Yes, they were on a three-game losing skid into Sunday's CFL West final against the Edmonton Eskimos, but everybody in the Stampeders locker room insisted they were better than they'd played in those games.

On Sunday, they proved themselves correct and earned themselves a second-straight trip to the Grey Cup in Ottawa -- where they'll play the Toronto Argonauts next Sunday (4 p.m.) -- by beating the Eskimos 32-28.

It was a Battle of Alberta victory that will go down in Stamps lore as one of the greats, but it wasn't without its tense moments -- especially early.

In the opening quarter, the Eskimos came out of the visitors locker room at McMahon Stadium and swung for the fences.

CJ Gable ran in an eight-yard touchdown on the Eskimos' very first possession, and then quarterback Mike Reilly connected with Derel Walker for a 69-yard TD that made it 14-0 before the Stamps had even picked up a first down.

From there, though, the Stamps took over.

"I don't think we panicked," said Stamps head coach Dave Dickenson. "Tough start offensively and defensively -- they looked like they had our number. What we did say was, 'Let's fight and go down with our best.'"

The Eskimos were ahead by two touchdowns only nine minutes into the game but would score only one point between that moment and the 4:35 mark of the third quarter.

It was all Stamps between those two points in the game.

As the Red & White's defensive linemen stepped up their pressure on Reilly, who completed 23-of-38 passes for 348 yards and one touchdown, their teammates on the secondary locked in.

Star Eskimos receiver Brandon Zylstra didn't have a reception until the third quarter, and Gable struggled to make any real impact.

The Stamps offence, meanwhile, found its groove.

Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell looked as good as he has in over a month and connected with Marquay McDaniel on a 10-yard touchdown to start the second quarter, and it seemed to open the floodgates.

By the end of the first half, Marken Michel had run in a touchdown and Roy Finch had electrified McMahon Stadium with a 50-yard rushing TD of his own.

It was 22-15 at halftime, and the Stampeders looked a lot more like the team that had rolled to a 13-1-1 record through the first four months of the season than the one that had dropped three in a row once they'd clinched a home date for the West Division final.

Being down 14-0, as it turned out, wasn't enough to bury these Stampeders.

"I think it's exactly what we needed -- I think it made us lock in right away," Mitchell said. "I can't speak about what happened on their sideline, you know, but we kinda saw them start dancing and stuff on the sideline ... We kinda locked in."

While the Stamps passing game looked like it had returned to form and Mitchell finished by completing 20-of-32 passes for 228 yards and one touchdown, the run-game deserves much of the credit.

After a week during which Jerome Messam was getting criticized from all corners, the big running back responded with a dominant performance.

Not only did he run for 17 yards on 13 carries, he also caught four passes for 44 yards.

In key moments, Messam burst through the Eskimos defensive line and picked up crucial yards to keep drives alive.

It was a vintage Messam performance and a reminder that he's still more-than-capable of dominating when given the chance.

"Ultimately, that was a rewarding performance for me as a coach," Dickenson said about Messam's big game. "He certainly was one of our best players, not only on his runs (but because) he's an unselfish player. You saw it -- I took him out of the game a lot and never heard a peep."

Dickenson was able to take Messam in and out of the game mostly because of Roy Finch, who provided another stellar showing on kick returns while also running for 81 yards on four carries, including an electrifying scamper for a 50-yard touchdown late in the second half.

All around, the Stamps put in the sort of performance that should silence many of their critics.

Sure, they lost three games in a row, but those games were completely meaningless. They had already secured first place in the West Division.

When it counts, the Stampeders show up, and that's exactly what they did Sunday.

That should make them the favourites over the Argonauts heading into the Grey Cup.

Don't expect them to talk about that much, though. They were in a similar position last year and fell to the Ottawa Redblacks and are well aware of the fact that if they lose next week, few people will remember how good they looked in the West final.

"This is what we wanted and expected going into the season," said Stampeders receiver Kamar Jorden, who finished the game with 111 yards through the air. "I felt like we believed it the whole year, regardless of the three-game losing skid and with the media going against us and all that stuff. We still knew what kind of team we were and what type of team we wanted to be ."